Ficlet, the result of events in milliways_bar.

[camwyn]

Background for this: through a series of events in milliways, aka the Crisis on Infinite Crossovers, Ray Stantz (gone_byebye) and Romanadvoratrelundar (_romana_) have wound up dating.

---

The most famous of these, of course, is: "We need to talk" Its close cousin, "Can we talk?", is not much better. Close upon the heels of those two, though, there is another: "What are you thinking about?"

Sometimes, it too takes another form. In this particular case- a quiet starlit evening on a lovely beach, on a planet so far from Earth that Terran scientists saw only pre-stellar gas clouds when they turned their telescopes its way- the form it took was, "Penny for your thoughts, Ray?"

He looked up at the stars. There were a few that ought to be familiar- he knew that much- but his stellar astronomy wasn't really what it ought to have been, and any of the blue-white gleams might've been Canopus for all he could tell. "I don't know if you want to know right now," he answered.

Romana chuckled softly and threaded an arm around his waist. "Of course I do, silly. I wouldn't have asked otherwise, you know."

He glanced sidelong at her; she was smiling, the expression just visible under the light of stars on a night without moon. "You're sure?"

"'Course I'm sure," she said, prodding him lightly. "You've been so quiet tonight- what're you thinking, hmm?"

Here, the dread that would have saved other men failed him. A wiser man would have recognised the sentence, and thought of something reasonable. A more experienced man would have had something prepped and ready to say. Ray, being neither particularly wise nor especially experienced, was instead an honest man.

"Dimensional physics," he said.

One of her eyebrows went up- hard to see in the dark, but he knew her expressions well enough by now to catch the bare little hint that was there.

"No, really- I've been trying to figure out the equations necessary to make something normally three-dimensional and confined to the prime material plane bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, and I think I'm really close this time. After what you said about my room-"

"You really are trying to build your own TARDIS, aren't you?" she said slowly.

"Well- not yet," he had to admit. "I have a few other things I need to work out first."

"Ah?"

"Most of them have to do with soundproofing."

There was a long silence before her other eyebrow went up.

"I mean, we made a heck of a ruckus the other night. Peter complained-"

Romana laughed, a rippling, silvery sound, and reached up to muss his hair. "You really are incorrigible, aren't you," she murmured, very close indeed; and if either of them said anything else that night, it was nothing that any other person's ears ought to hear.

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

I would love an answer like that.

[camwyn]

I got an answer like that once, although I think it was particle physics instead. The ensuing discussion lasted something like half an hour, because hey- fascinating stuff!

[aethereal-girl.livejournal.com]

Close upon the heels of those two, though, there is another: "What are you thinking about?"

This is the second context in the past week that I've read this, and it's really puzzling to me, because up until now, I'd never heard of it before. In fact, the only reason that I'm familiar with the question at all (being used as an opening gambit, that is, and not as a response to anything in particular) is because dhole asks me that all the time.

It used to bug the heck out of me, too, and I'd usually answer "I dunno," not because I had been thinking about somethng that I didn't want to tell him about, but simply because when one is snapped out of a mental fugue it is not necessarily easy to put one's finger on exactly what one was thinking about.

I have gotten better at coming up with an answer, however, and have come to regard it as a sort of mental discipline.

[camwyn]

I admit, I have used it a few times, but only because I have gotten to the point where I can generally tell by the sound of the breath when someone who has been quiet a long while is considering speaking aloud. That's not the same as springing it on them completely out of the blue.

[sff-corgi.livejournal.com]

Adorable. :D

[camwyn]

Thank you!

[lone-gunfreak.livejournal.com]

hello. I really love the RPing of Ray you've done at Milliways ... the idea of Ray with a lightsaber is particularly cool. I've drawn fan art for it, and I hope you like it. it's not really an illustration of a particular scene, just a generic Jedi!(Comicverse)Ray vs spook kinda thing.

click here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/bitterfly/fan%20art/camwynfanart.jpg)

thanks for the entertaining read, and some fun drawing inspiration.

[camwyn]

Hey, neat! Thank you very much- I appreciate it! Do you have a character there that I should know? I'm afraid I don't recognize your journal name....

[lone-gunfreak.livejournal.com]

no, I just lurk there (not a writer). I'm glad you liked it

:)